Working from home for an employer in another city: who gets your city income tax in North Ohio?

Checked against the sources linked at the end on 2 October 2026. Written by ProTaxService in Brunswick, OH, for taxpayers across North Ohio. General information, not tax advice for your situation.

TL;DR: Ohio law is built around where your employer’s “principal place of work” is, and it exempts an employer from withholding for another city on 20 or fewer days a year. After the 20th day, your employer must withhold for the other city. Working from home does not clearly take you out of the work city’s tax, and a refund from the work city usually moves the tax to your home city instead. Claim refunds through your collector’s form, within three years, and do not count on 2020 refunds.

When more people started working from home, a simple question became messy: if you sit at a kitchen table in Brunswick and your employer is in Cleveland, which city gets your city income tax? Ohio’s law was written for people who commute, and the courts and the cities have been sorting out what it means for people who do not.

This guide explains the rule that applies today, what happened in the pandemic years, how to ask for a refund and the catch that surprises people: getting money back from one city often means owing it to another.

The rule: the principal place of work

Ohio law taxes wages where your employer’s principal place of work is for you, with a 20-day exception. The relevant statute, Ohio Revised Code 718.011, is titled the “occasional entrant exemption”. It never uses the words “remote” or “telework”. It was written in 2015 and has not been changed since.

It defines your principal place of work in three tiers:

  1. The fixed location where you are “required to report for employment duties on a regular and ordinary basis.”
  2. If there is none, a worksite location you are required to report to, and the statute says a worksite location “does not include the home of an employee.”
  3. If there is none, the location in Ohio “at which the employee spends the greatest number of days in a calendar year performing services.”

An employer does not have to withhold for another city on 20 or fewer days in a calendar year, unless that city is where your principal place of work is. After the 20th day the employer must withhold for that other city for the days after that. A day counts for the city where you spent more time that day than in any other city. An employer may choose to withhold for the other city from the first day. If it does, tax paid to your principal-place-of-work city for those first 20 days is refundable to you.

What that means for a remote worker

A hybrid worker and a fully remote worker are in different positions. If you are required to report to your employer’s office some days, that office is likely your principal place of work, so that city is the one with a claim on your wages. If you are fully remote and never required to report anywhere, the third tier points to the place where you spend the most days, which is your home city. That is our reading of the statute’s wording, not a rule the cities have confirmed.

Two more points:

  • Small employers with under $500,000 of revenue in the prior year withhold only for the city of their own fixed location.
  • Your employer’s mistake is not your defense. The statute says an employee “is not relieved from liability for a tax by the failure of the employer” to withhold it. If tax is due to a city, you owe it.

What happened during the pandemic

For 2020, Ohio treated days at home as days at the principal place of work, and the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the law. House Bill 197 in 2020 treated the days an employee worked from home during the emergency as days at the employer’s usual place of work, and the provision covered days through the end of 2021. In February 2024, in Schaad v. Alder, the Ohio Supreme Court voted 5 to 2 that the provision “does not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment”. It decided that question for 2020 only.

From 2021, the pandemic provision applied only to employer withholding, not to the employee’s own tax liability. The Regional Income Tax Agency (RITA) says it is still holding requests for 2020 refunds in a suspended status “until all litigation is concluded”. So do not plan around a 2020 refund.

How to ask for a refund

You can ask the city or its collector for a refund of tax withheld for days you worked from home, within three years. State law (Ohio Revised Code 718.19, as amended effective September 30, 2025) sets the deadline: three years after the return, including a valid extension, was due or paid, whichever is later.

How the collectors handle it:

  • RITA has a refund form, Form 10A, with a claim reason for days worked from home. You attach your W-2 and a log of your days, and the employer completes a section. RITA says tax withheld for workplace cities while you worked from home is “available for refund” on an appropriate request, and that some or all of it may be due to the city where you actually worked, including your home city.
  • CCA (Cleveland) says yes for tax year 2021 and after, subject to the statute of limitations. Support can include a telework agreement or a supervisor letter on letterhead.
  • Other cities have their own forms and proof. Ask the work city’s tax office.

Keep a day-by-day log of where you worked and your employer’s records. It is the evidence every city asks for.

The catch: a refund moves the tax

A refund from the work city can mean the same wages become taxable by your home city. RITA warns that some or all of the refunded tax may be due to the city where the work was actually done, including your home city. State law points the same way: the exemption for wages that are not subject to withholding under the 20-day rule does not apply to the city where you live.

Here is a worked illustration. A Brunswick resident works from home for a Cleveland employer and earns $60,000. Cleveland has withheld 2.5%, which is $1,500, and Brunswick’s credit for tax paid to other cities leaves Brunswick owing $600, for $2,100 in all (the guide to living in one city and working in another shows the arithmetic). If Cleveland refunds the $1,500 and Brunswick taxes all of the wages at its 2.0% rate with no credit, the total is $1,200. The family saves $900, not the $1,500 that came back.

That is why the best answer depends on both cities’ rules and your facts, not just on whether you were at home.

What changed recently

A 2023 law about business net profit lets a business assign income to a reporting location, but it says it does not affect withholding on wages. House Bill 96 (effective September 30, 2025) changed refund and extension timing for city taxes, and nothing in the 2025 and 2026 changes we found alters remote-work withholding. The Ohio Department of Taxation has no page on W-2 remote work that we could find, so the guidance comes from the statute and the collectors.

Frequently asked questions

Is my employer’s city entitled to tax me if I never go there?

Possibly. The statute treats your principal place of work as the city where you are required to report, or if none, where you spend the most days. Whether a fully remote worker’s home counts is something to confirm with the city.

Does my employer have to withhold for a city I work in only some days?

Not for the first 20 days you work there in a calendar year, unless that city is your principal place of work. Until then it withholds for your principal place of work instead. From day 21 it must withhold for that city, and it may choose to do so from the first day.

Can I claim a refund for 2021 or later?

CCA says yes for 2021 and after. RITA accepts refund requests with the right form and support. The deadline is three years after the return was due or paid.

Should I just file a refund claim?

Not before you know where the tax would go instead. A refund from the work city can increase what you owe your home city. Check both before you file.

The short version

  • 20 or fewer days: an employer need not withhold for another city. After day 20, it must.
  • Principal place of work: where you are required to report, not your home, unless there is no such place.
  • Refunds: use your collector’s form, keep a day log, and file within three years.
  • The catch: a refund can shift the same wages to your home city’s tax.
  • 2020: do not count on a refund.

Rules and court cases change, and your facts matter. Confirm with your cities’ tax offices, or bring your W-2 and day log to a preparer before you file a claim.

ProTaxService is a small practice in Brunswick, OH, run by Elena Rusakovich, an IRS-registered tax preparer (PTIN), working with individuals and small businesses across North Ohio. We prepare individual tax returns that bring the federal, Ohio and city returns together, for Brunswick and for the cities that use RITA, such as Medina and Strongsville. Tell us what you need or call (440) 212-9613.

Sources

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